Thank you, Mr. Chairman. How much money is being dedicated under this fiscal year and the last two fiscal years towards a needs assessment for the Aurora College to be expanded into an independent campus? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. For that we’ll go to Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I would have to get my director to elaborate. He’s been involved in the process since we’ve been discussing the college for several years now. So I’ll get Mr. Devitt to elaborate.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Devitt.

Thank you, Mr. Devitt. Mr. Hawkins.

Is any budget being considered for this fiscal year on a needs assessment for Aurora College? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I believe Mr. Devitt answered that. It’s not in the business planning cycle at this point. Mahsi.

Over the last six years I’ve heard the Minister say there’s planning, discussions, planning and discussions, and more planning and discussions on the Aurora College. So what type of planning money has been committed that I’ve heard over the last six years? I’m trying to get a sense here, I asked for the last two fiscal years as well. So we hear the same answer over and over again, but now I’m hearing zero money. So I’m left to conclude that there’s some anomaly in his answers as he keeps giving them to the House about how much money he’s talked about planning for all these years. So the anomaly is us, the one he’s created. So how much money has gone into the planning of an independent Aurora campus and where does it show up? Thank you.

Mahsi. Like every year, we go through these assessments with any infrastructure that’s available that’s before us. That’s how we invest our funding, working closely with the college, or if it is the schools then we have to work closely with the schools. If we need to hire

a consultant to do that, engaging community members, then we expand in those areas. We don’t have the actual numbers before us, but over the years assessment does cost money and that’s what we do on an annual basis when the opportunity for infrastructure is before us. So those are areas that we have worked closely with the college and, as you know, we extended their lease agreement as well. So we are getting to the point where Public Works is working closely with them to identify options for how we can move forward on this because three years will be before us in due time. Now we’re on to a year already. So we need to re-evaluate those areas. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins, your time is up. Do you have any more questions? I have no one else on this page. However, Mr. Hawkins, if you’re going to continue I’d ask that if you have anything new to offer on this subject given the fact that we’ve had two cycles of questioning today, we had one cycle of questioning the previous Committee of the Whole day, so unless you have something very new to offer, please rephrase your questions to something new. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. The Minister just made note of documents. I’d like if maybe he could elaborate for the House which documents he’s referring to. That’s certainly a new question. What dollar amounts are associated with those documents? Thank you.

Mahsi. That information that Mr. Devitt referred to was a needs assessment. Those are some of the areas that are part of the process when we talk about the capital planning process. If I may, again, Mr. Devitt can elaborate on the process itself. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Devitt.

Thank you, Mr. Devitt. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are there any technical or planning documents on the needs assessments of the college that are being anticipated for this fiscal year that are specific to the college itself? Furthermore, what has the

department developed, and how much money have they spent in the past two fiscal years to that end?

Back to the technical plans and needs assessments specific to the college over the last, including this, year for the plan going forward as well as the past two fiscal years. What is the department able to share as to the work developed and foreseen for the planning portion of the capital planning of the Aurora College?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. We’ll share what information we can possibly share. We need to engage the college as well. Some of the information may not be satisfied for us to share with the public, but we’ll have to engage them. There is a lot of information being shared between the two departments. With that we can go back to the standing committee and share some information that could be made available.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins.

I’m not on the standing committee, so I will go to the Minister for his thoughts on that regard.